Thorsten Heins is now a Canadian citizen

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins celebrated the release of the new CrackBerry in a better way than most of us - by becoming a Canadian citizen. In a small ceremony that took place in Kitchener yesterday, Heins was one of many who were granted Canadian citizenship. He is now a dual citizen of both Germany and Canada. In addition to being able to now truly say he's Canadian, he can also take advantage of universal health care and all the Poutine he can handle (ok, anyone can have Poutine but it's more fun when you're Canadian).

If you want to send a quick congrats along you can do so in the forums. And don't forget to check out our new, totally awesome Thorsten Heins topic page for everything you need to know (and more!) about BlackBerry's CEO.

Just saw him ön the business news. Btw just out from ten Day hospital statistik för ruptured appendix
And sepsis. I was evaluated within five minutes, cat scanned, and operated ön within a couple of hours.
Grateful for the lite saving measures and our health system. As a side note, the government may be soon
Permitting commonwealth passports as well as European Union work permits for us all.

Im going to write a song for him and record a video and do one third in english, one third in french and one third in german. Welcome to Canada Thor. We need people like You here!! and by people like you, I mean smart people.

I have been legally resident for 12 years. I have not given up on my British citizenship because At the time I was advised that it was not recommended to have dual citizenship. Anyway congratulations Thor!

There's no reason not to become a Canadian citizen if you have EU nationality. If taxes are a concern, Canada does not tax citizens living outside the country if those citizens don't maintain a Canadian residence in their name.

If anything, naturalizing as a Canadian citizen makes it MUCH easier to enter the US, especially for day trips by land. During the four years I was a permanent resident without citizenship, I always had to exit the car and spend a few hours in the immigration building when driving across the border. After naturalizing, I can simply flash my Canadian passport and drive past the booth without any trouble.

But the ultimate reason to get Canadian citizenship is that you can truly feel you belong here :)

I just checked on my German Embassy's web page and it states that if a geman national applies for a foreign nationality, he automatically renounces his German citizenship.
I would like to apply for American citizenship also, but I will not renounce my German nationality.
I'm glad he did it, don't get me wrong, but I don't understand how he did it, because German law prevents it.

The US has never had problems with dual citizenship, at least not since WW2. They just don't encourage it, that's all. Canada has also been very liberal with citizenship laws since the 1970s.

Whether you have to give up your old nationality if you naturalize in Canada or the US is entirely up to the old country's laws. In Thor's case, Germany just requires permission to retain German nationality if such an event occurs and he seems to have got that permission.

Read up on German nationality law on wikipedia. Native-born Germans don't lose German nationality if they naturalize in another EU country. If they naturalize outside the EU, and that country permits multiple citizenship, they just need permission and that may or may not be granted depending on circumstances.

I'm a dual citizen, best of both worlds! Plus, nowadays most of the Western countries are cool with each other, so it's not a big deal to be a citizen of two countries. There are certain limitations though.

Funny. Neither do we (Canadian). The wait times are grossly over exaggerated. If it's an emergency then you'll be taken care of, I have numerous elderly friends who have had none problem. Like I said, it's grossly over exaggerated, our health system is in fine shape. (says I) lol

I don't personally know anyone who has had t wait like that to see any kind of specialist... If it's not an injury or painful, the waits can be a little longer, but I've never seen over a year. and I've seen A LOT of injuries and needs for specialists... it's always been fairly quick. Heck, for that matter, even the cases I know of that were not ot emergency or in pain, we're in to see the specialist in under a year. I keep wanting to actually know someone personally like your self who had a wait like that... but in the hundreds or even thousands of people I know, not a one. but what do I know. Each to their own experience. Maybe you need to move to Alberta ;)

A lot of it depends on where you are, as well. I've had multiple deaths in my family from being put on wait lists to see specialists for everything from lupus, to cancer, to rare heart diseases, etc. in BC.

The Canadian system is great, just don't get anything serious or you might wind up waiting to your death.

Keep in mind Canada's population and geography. European countries are far more densely populated. Each hospital and clinic there would be able to employ more staff and serve more people than the average hospital/clinic in Canada because there are more taxpayers per square kilometer to fund it. Generally, major cities in Canada are going to have much better health care than small towns in the middle of nowhere.

Wait times aren't exaggerated. They just aren't going to be experienced by everyone. Yes, I believe no one should have to wait, but things won't improve without more funding for health care. Perhaps we should start cutting politician salaries and shifting those savings onto health care...

Serious?!
I literally broke my finger yesterday... went in today, got it x-rayed today and is under treatment now. No wait time. Not sure where you got 5 years from, but its sure not where im at (Calgary)

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